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American cabinetmaking centers. Examining the case furniture of this shop and comparing it with English developments and with other American production reveals things useful to contemporary and reproduction cabinetmakers alike. The main case construction of Scott's desk-and-bookcase, shown in photo A, is of the board and dovetail type. Dovetail case construction was introduced into England from the Continent in the second half of the 17th century. Early examples with dust boards have "full bottoms," i.e. , dustboards as thick as the drawer bJades that continue to the back of the case. (The English cabinetmaker's term "drawer blade" may be unfamiliar, but it avoids the ambiguity of the term "divider, " which is also used for panitions within a drawer, and of the term " rail," which is used for just about any narrow piece of wood that happens to be horizontal.) The English (apparently in the George I period, 17 14- 1727) developed a dustboard thinner than the drawer blade, which makes the case lighter in weight, and this is the type Scott used here (photo B). The drawer blades are about 3 in. wide and are dovetailed into the carcase sides and the joints covered at the front by a glued strip joints exposed, as in some Boston casepieces and in much rural American and English furniture, is a provincial detail not in line with the finished approach of London furniture.) Rabbeted into the back of the drawer blades are 1J2-in. thick dustboards that extend all the way to the back of the case. The sides of the case have dadoes cut the full thickness of the drawer blades to receive these dustboards. Narrow strips of 7/s in. thick and made of solid walnut. They %6 in. thick. (Leaving the dovetail D: Massachusetts slant-top desk, circa 1770, has a full frame, but no dustboard behind the drawer blade of the top-drawer cavity. Usually the side member of this frame is not glued to the sides; often it forces the drawer blade or the back boards out as the case side shnnks. E: Phtladelphiahighchest, made Henry Clifftonin 1753, hasathin dustboard, but no kicker to keep opened. (The two square glue blocks on recent repair.) side of down when chest are a wood insened below the dust board keep the dust board at the top of the dado. These mips, which are sometimes called kickers, have two other functions: They keep the drawer beneath from tipping down when it is opened, and they also provide solid suppon under the dustboard where the drawer above runs. This dustboard construction avoids several problems seen in cheaper constructions of the period. Because the grain of the dust boards runs in the same direction as the grain of the top, bottom and sides of the case, they can expand and contract compatibly as they respond to humidity changes. Full dustboards also hold the case square, preventing the sides from cupping or twisting out of plane. The kickers that wedge the dustboards in the dado are slightly shoner than the depth of the case, leaving a gap between their ends and the backboards. This prevents them from pushing out the backboards or drawer blades when the sides of the case shrink. These strips are not nailed but are glued only on the end that butts against the drawer blade. This allows the sides to expand and contract without restriction. The cheaper alternatives to this full-dustboard construction are of two general types. The one seen most often is simply a drawer blade dovetailed into the carcase side, the joint left uncovered (photo C). The drawer suppon is insened into the dadoed sides and nailed, or is nailed to the plain sides of the case. This solution is obviously simpler, faster and cheaper than dustboard construction but it has serious drawbacks. The grain of these nailed-in drawer suppons runs across the grain of the case sides; thus the suppons become battens impeding the movement of the sides. The nails funher complicate the situation, causing compression shrinkage between them. Split sides often result, and sometimes split tops and bottoms as well. These drawer suppons can also force the drawer blades out of their housings and push the backboards from their rabbets. Additionally, cases built this way lack the stability that full dust boards provide. In the Boston bombe example (photo C), the single full dustboard in the center of the case shows that the maker understood the problem and its proper solution. His compromise was probably a result of economlC necessity. The other major type of construction used instead of dust- boards consists of a joined frame. The front of the frame is the drawer blade, ·the back element fits against the backboards, and the two side elements form the drawer suppons. These two sides are usually monised into the front and back elements of the frame; therefore, although dadoed into the carcase sides, they need not be glued or nailed there. The top drawer cavity on the Massachusetts desk (photo D) is constructed this way. Frames do not usually split the case sides, but can push the drawer blades out of their housings, or push the backboards off, when the sides of the case shrink. This frame method was very popular in the back country of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virgina and Nonh Carolina, and perhaps it derives from a Germanic approach. Unlike the Massachusetts example shown here, examples from these areas usually have frames at every drawer blade. Typical of Philadelphia, the thin dustboard in a high chest . D E 51 of drawers (photo E) appears to be the product of a loss or misunderstanding of the London construction seen in the Scott case. Instead of the dado being cut the full thickness of the drawer blade, it is thin, receiving the thin dustboard snugly and omitting the kicker. This construction was usual in Colo- .